Chinese Gamer Dies - What Now?
This is the news that I don’t like covering. Yesterday, the AP reported that a 30-year-old Guangzhou man “fainted†after three straight days of gaming [Article Here]. It may have been more, however, as his parents reported that he spent nearly all of the 7-day Chinese Lunar festival gaming.
What keeps astonishing me is that these gamers die in rooms full of people. You mean to say that nobody got a little bit concerned? They all got out of dodge pretty fast, once the guy dropped. This seems to beg the question: at what point do you walk up, tap the guy on the shoulder, and ask, “yo, Qui, when was the last time you slept?â€
Not many people look out for gamers, and to me that means we’ve got to start looking out for ourselves. I drew up some fun guidelines for gamers, or especially café operators. Being a hero inside of a videogame is only so impressive. It’s about time we had the courage to stand up to our friends (or the kid who smells like rotten fish). It seems well enough established that three days straight can kill you, so tell me if the following seems too far off:
Guidelines for gamers:
The most important thing that we can do, besides pray that there’s not over-reaching legislation in China and internationally, is:
Find the COD (Cause of Death)
Preliminary COD from [Yahoo News]:
“According to preliminary findings, the length of time this man spent online might have triggered heart problems,” the paper quoted a local hospital emergency medic in the city of Zhongshan as saying.
Another thing that we can do, especially people who work at reporting these incidents to news organizations, federal offices and other agencies, is:
Gather as much information as possible.
I’m just throwing this stuff out there. Tell me if you think it’s on track.
Neils Clark :: Sep.18.2007 :: Game Addiction, Games ::
One update from
http://www.newsique.com/odd/online_addict_dies_after_maratho/
reports that the binge was related to the Chinese Lunar Festival, and that a number of other recreational options had been shut down. This extra coverage gives an interesting cultural perspective on what sounds like a 7-day binge.
The 150-kg (330-lb) man from Jinzhou, in Liaoning province, collapsed on Saturday, the last day of the holiday, after spending “almost all” of the seven-day break playing online games, the China Daily said, citing his parents.
Xu Yan, a local teacher, said the “dull life” during the holiday prompted many people to turn to computer games for entertainment.
“There are only two options. TV or computer. What else can I do in the holiday as all markets, KTV and cafeterias are shut down?” the paper quoted Xu as saying.
China has seen an alarming rise in the number of teenage and young adult Internet addicts in recent years, despite attempts to restrict minors from cybercafes and limit online game playing times.
About 2.6 million — or 13 percent — of China’s 20 million Internet users under 18 are classed as addicts, state media have reported.
Huh - yeah - maybe cybercafés should have the same type of rules as bars (at least here in Norway). If the customer is drunk as a skunk it is illegal to serve him alcohol.
I wonder if there’s any help to find in how casino’s are run. Why do we not hear about gamblers dying? Is it because they inevitably run out of money before it wares down on their health? Do casino’s have policies to keep an eye on people who’ve been gambling for over 24 hours?
Yeah, I’ve heard about similar wino laws here in the states. Since I haven’t trespassed on them, I’m not sure exactly how they work. What I *DO* know is that some of the bars in my hometown have some clever ways of getting rid of people at “last call.” The problem with gamer cafes and “last call” laws, I think, is what I saw in Singapore. Some operators lock everybody in at 3AM.
Despite that, I met some attendants at cafes who saw a heavy level of self-regulation, and knew that plainclothes people would occasionally do spot-checks (though primarily for younger kids, I think).
Casinos are another cool case study for this. From TV shows, which are of course the epitome of real-ness, they’ll send someone down to “help” them spend their money. Maybe a buxom lass, maybe a muscley Italian guy, it doesn’t matter. Then again, that’s only when they’re winning. You’ve got a good question: what about the guy with massive rings around his eyes at 7am? You know, the one that just gave the house $30,000?
Casinos. I’m a volunteer fire fighter and know that my neighboring department probably has 25% or more of its medical calls to a casino. You don’t hear about that because it’s not sensational, “Elderly male dies of heart attack while playing Black Jack.” Then news loves bashing new technologies like cell phones, iPods etc (i.e. you never hear about the car crash caused by someone messing with the radio, you DO if they were using the cell phone.) And of course younger people dying is bigger news than elderly.
As stated by Neils … you need to know the actual causes, what led up to it it. If it is just DVT, then let’s educate and get people moving around.
Exactly. We have to be open-ended when getting the COD on the next few gaming deaths. Some of them are going to be because an individual had certain genetic or behavioral problem, unrelated to gaming. Some are going to be linked to things like sitting - and there’s been far too much generalizing up to this point.
And wow. I know people who’ve talked about staying up all night at the casinos, but I hadn’t heard about casino deaths. Once we start (if we ever do) looking at physiological stimulation in gamers, we should compare that to gambling in order to see how similar/different the two are with respect to brain chemistry.
But, like, yeah. We’ve got to start with the basics, and that means getting accurate info!